Home sales may be tanking across much of the country, but the price of coveted detached homes in the City of Toronto continues to soar, with the average cost exceeding $800,000 for the first time.

The price of the average detached home was up 17 per cent in mid September over the same time last year, hitting $805,308, according to midmonth figures from the Toronto Real Estate Board.

The increases are blamed on the fact there are fewer detached homes for sales than historic norms but unrelenting demand. TREB has blamed this phenomenon on moving costs — including Toronto’s unique land transfer tax — which have made moving so prohibitively expensive that homeowners are opting to hang on to their places and do renovations instead.

The average price of a detached home in the suburbs was $563,739 as of mid September, a relatively small jump of 6 per cent year over year.

Highrise condos prices were up 5 per cent in the 416 region to $352,851 in mid September over September, 2011, TREB’s figures show, while condo prices dropped 2 per cent in the 905 regions over the last year to $287,467.

The average price of a GTA house, which includes detached, semis, townhouses and row houses, was $496,786 in mid September, up 9.5 per cent from mid September of 2011.

The number of homes sold, however, was a completely different story thanks to stricter mortgage lending rules, which were cited this week in the 5.8 per cent drop in sales right across the country.

The number of residential property transactions across the GTA was down 15 per cent in mid September compared to the same period in 2011, with 2,544 transactions instead of the 2,995 recorded during the same period in 2011, said TREB.